Caliber Questions

Hello everyone,
I am new to the forum, just found the website a couple of weeks ago, and love it!

I am thinking about buying a Howa or Weatherby Vanguard rifle, and have a couple of caliber questions. what kind of barrel life can I expect out of the following calibers? and what about performance out of a 24" barrel? I plan on having it bedded, and trigger tuned or replaced, would like a factory cartrige capable of 5-600 yard elk, with good barrel life.

Dano:
From the calibers you mention, you would get the longest barrel life from the 300 Win, 300 Weatherby and 338 Win. In terms of something I'd had to that list is the 7mm rem mag and the 300RUM. Of these I would narrow the list to 7mm, 300win and 300RUM. I'd choose between these three because you don't reload and these three are commonly found factory ammo.

In terms of barrel length, performance would be fine with 24" but I would suggest going with a longer barrel to really maximize the performance of these magnums.

hate to disagree, but of the calibers you have listed the 300 WSM is giving the best at peak accuracy from what I have seen in the 1k comp guns that get over a 500-1000 rds a year in many cases just in competitions.

300 WSM is running up to 4000 rds and still winning in comp guns. My first barrel went 2300 plus and still placed in top 10 at Nationals. (that is with 210s at 2950 out of 30 barrel, so you could get 2800-2850 with 210s.)

Danny Brooks won the IBS Nationals this year by the widest margin in history. He won outright top LG Score, LG Group, HG Group and placed 4th in HG Score (if I remember it right). He shoots the 300 WSM and 300 Win mag. He gets 1200 max for the Win mag and is still shooting his 300 WSM with 4k rounds in it.

Now anyone one of the ones listed will give you more than decent ballistics for 600 yds and knockdown. By the time the barrel is worn out you will have a real good idea which way you want to go.

I agree with the .280Fan but with one more addition .338 RUM and nothing shorter than a 26"tube . You didn't mention anything about optics don't forget to figure funds for a good scope if you want reach out like you say you need to see what you are shooting at !